First Battle of Ypres

The First Battle of Ypres occurred from October to November 1914 during the first few months of World War I, fought between the Entente armies of France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom on one side and the German Empire on the other. The battle concluded the Race to the Sea, with the Allies beginning to form a front line in the Flanders region of southern Belgium. The Germans assaulted the Ypres salient, and the Allied troops succeeded in halting the German attacks. However, the Allies failed in their own counterattacks, and the two sides launched failed assaults on each other as a war of attrition began. By November, both sides had suffered heavy losses, their morale had collapsed, and they had run out of ammunition, and the exhausted armies finally broke off from battle. The Germans nicknamed the battle Kindermord ("slaughter of the innocents"), as 30% of the German troops engaged in the battle were student volunteers in the Imperial German Army; some false reports claimed that as many as 75% of the troops were volunteers.